Wednesday, January 19, 2011

We were sitting on the couch together this morning - him and I.
We watched this video together - him and I.
We felt inspired and encouraged at the same time, for precisely the same reasons - both him and I.
So we're sharing it cuz ... y'know?... that's just what you do with those you love - you share it.
**********

Only Jesus can free us from ourselves.
Pastor Jim Burgen tells the story of hearing about a character in the Chronicles of Narnia.

His name was Eustace Clarence Scrubb; his name tells it all.
He was a bratty, jealous kid. In "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader," Eustace belittles and complains about Lucy and Edmund again and again until his monstrous evil character inside starts to show on the outside; he becomes a dragon.
Only Aslan can save.
We are all like Eustace until Christ comes to our rescue.

So we finished watching it, him and I.
And he pulls an old smooth (almost forgotten) 1978 move -
he asks me out to a movie!
I am grinning. Widely.
Two cozy seats at some Silver City and a jumbo popcorn to share, coming right up! Happy Eeek.

Monday, January 10, 2011

My blog is my journal. A place where I unravel and 'process' - always agonizing overlong on most posts - tweaking, refurbishing and generally driving myself nuts.
My ever cautious Beloved (with the ultra private personality) often wonders aloud what possesses me to disclose so much of myself to just ... anybody.
But I simply replicate the now famous words of my late mother: that's just the way it is.
Apparently, many of mom's friends were also keenly aware of her decidedly firm state of mind on most issues - and somehow after the funeral, there was this old adage circulating...something about an apple not falling far from its tree. :)
So if I must, I shall wear that mantle with both pride and humility - if such an oxymoronic style exists.

I hope someday to have my daughter teach me how to convert this blog into a hardcover book, and then snippets of my earthly sojourn will remain on a dusty shelf in our home library for any interested persons of posterity.
The reader will know one thing for sure - for good or for bad, I'm an open book.
My hubby groans reading this over my shoulder.
The reader will know one other thing for sure - the discovery (in the past thirty years) of a divine sense of humour, living with my well/cleverly appointed other half. I could write a book about that.
Hence the groaning.

So. The next stage of my journey will be coming to terms of an earthly life without mom nearby.
I thought I'd feel run over by a truck by now. But no. I thought maybe I'd just feel empty. But no.
... At least not yet.
I feel too grateful to God for His overwhelmingly specific and speedy answer to our prayer(s) - for giving us the enormous privilege of waving her off on the riverbank - for bringing Nicole back into her life before having to leave it behind - for the realization of how rich she was in faithful, affirming friendship...

On Sunday, I could re-connect with my own church family - and then ultimate dessert!.... reveling in the company of my preschool peeps over dinner

and a delightfully squishy viewing of the Curious George Movie on laptop.

(Laptop just took on a whole new meaning :)

My conclusion thus far? It's not a crime against mom to 'enjoy' these first days of mourning.

On the contrary, I will 'credit' her by attempting to adopt her hard-won conviction of Matthew 6:34:

Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.

“In friendship…we think we have chosen our peers. In reality a few years’ difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another…the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting–any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking no chances. A secret master of ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,” can truly say to every group of Christian friends, “Ye have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another.” The friendship is not a reward for our discriminating and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each of us the beauties of others."

C.S.Lewis

(see also Acts 17:26-28)

"It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."